Silylamides are known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,209 which shows the preparation of amidosilanes by reacting an aminosilane of the formula R.sub.4-x Si(NR'R").sub.y, with amides with the removal of the amine by-product by volatilization. The amidosilanes produced are of the formula ##STR3## WHERE R' can be alkyl of 1 to 18 carbon atoms such as methyl, ethyl, butyl, etc. However, this patent has no specific disclosure of an N-t-butylamide either in column 4, line 52, or lines 58-68 where the various groups substituted on the nitrogen are elucidated. A t-butylsilylamine is one of the starting materials but the t-butyl group is removed as t-butyl amine by volatilization.
A similar disclosure appears in U.S. Pat. No. 2,876,234 which claims the amidosilanes. U.S. Pat. No. 3,436,415 discloses the compound allylethylbis-N-isopropyl-propionamidesilane, column 2, line 39, and its use as an intermediate in the preparation of silyloxazolidones. Also U.S. Pat. No. 3,488,371 discloses the compound phenylmethylbis-N-(beta-phenylisopropyl)acetamidosilane (Example 5). None of these references, however, disclose the N-t-butyl derivative of these amidosilanes.
It is also known that amidosilanes and various other reactive silanes are silylating agents which are extensively used in reaction with organic or inorganic molecules containing the hydroxyl, the NH or the SH group. In general, these silylations are carried out in order to modify the starting compounds either in order to carry out additional synthetic steps or in order to modify complex mixtures so that they can be more easily separated. Additional reasons for silylation are to modify surfaces of materials in order to render them hydrophobic and organophilic.
It is the object of this invention to prepare novel silylamides which are much more reactive silylating agents than the best previously known silylating agent which is bis-(trimethylsilyl)acetamide. This compound silylates quite rapidly, but usually only one of the trimethylsilyl groups are employed. The by-product is N-trimethyl-silylacetamide so one half of the potential silylating groups are not used. The compounds of this invention are some 5 times faster than the bis-trimethyl-silylacetamide (BSA) and all of the silicon is used during the silylation.
The compounds of this invention can be used for silylating any compound containing the OH, NH, SH or carboxyl group. They are particularly useful in silylating unreactive compounds such as ureas and in the silylation of complex mixtures.